Clothes conditioner



Aug. 12, 1958 D. L. CLARK 2,846,776

CLOTHES CONDITIONER Filed Jan. 11, 1954 INVENTOR.

DAVID L. CLARK BY HIS ATTORNEY United States Patent 2,846,776 I CLOTHESCONDITIONER DavidInClark, Bue'ch'e'l; Ky., assig nOr to General ElectricCompany, acorporation of New York Application January 11, 1954, SerialNO. 403,388

4 Claims. (CI. 34-45 This invention relates to clothes treating machinesof the type tumbling clothes within a basket, and more particularly tomeans in connection with such machines for conditioning the clothes.

Laundry machines are available for washing the clothes and'forsubsequently drying. It is also common practice to arrange a clothesdryer to terminate automatic operation when'the clothes are in adamp-dry state, ready for ironingi A longer drying period or higher peaktemperature within the clothes dryer provides bone-dry clothes frorn thesame machine. I 4

If the clothes are'taken from the dryer in a damp-dry state, they mustbe ironed immediately if mildewing' is to be' avoided. This is ofteninconvenient; or perhaps the time schedule does not permit immediateironing. On the other hand, completely dried clothes must be carefullydampened before effective ironing can be per formed, which process islaborious and time consuming when done manually.

Accordingly; it is a primary object of this invention to'provide, inconjunction with a clothes treating machine having a tumbling basket,means to dampen automatically dry clothes preparatory to furtherfinishing operations.

It is also an'objecf of this invention to provide a' clothes dampener orconditioner effective automatically to dampen each piece evenly.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a liquid iniectio'nmeans for a clothes dryer, along with a control to permit machineoperation without the heaters normally used in the clothes dryingoperation;

A further object of the invention is to provide an economical andr'e'liablearrangement for adding a liquid to the interior of a basket inwhich clothesare tumbled for the purpose of conditioning the clothes.

In carrying out my invention in one form thereof, I provide clothesconditioningapparatus which maybe used selectively either as a clothesdryer or as a clothes dampener. The apparatusincludes a clothes tumblingbasket and drive means for rotating the basket at a clothes tumblingspeed; To evaporate moisture from the clothes within the basket,electrical heating means are'arra'nged for supplying heat to them, andfor dampening the clothes, a liquid supply device is arranged forpassing liquid-onto-them; The operation of the apparatusis controlled bycontrol means which provide for selectively rotating the tumbhng basketwith the heatingmeans in operation for drying clothes, and without theheating means and with the liquid supply device in operation fordampening clothes. Thus depending upon the setting of the control means,the apparatus may function either as a clothes dryer or as a clothessprinkler.

The features of my invention believed to be novel are set forth withparticularity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however,both as to its organization and method of operation, together withfurther objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood byreference to the following description taken in connection with theaccompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a 2 perspective view, partiallysection'alized, of a clothes conditioning machine embodying myinvention; Fig. 2 is a schematic wiring diagram for the deviceillustrated by Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is an enlarged View of a component toillustrate details.

While not necessarily limited thereto, the present inven-' tion isdescribed as particularly adapted for use in opejunction with a clothesdryer of the type having atumbling'" drum or basket 1 rotatable about asubstantially horizontal axis Within an outer enclosing cabinet orcasing. Basket 1 may include a peripheral foraminous' wall 2, a backwall, and a front Wall 3 having an access opening 4' therein as definedby an outwardly projecting flange 5. The outer cabinet in the usualmanner includes side walls 6, a top 7, and a suitable supporting basestructure 8. The front wall of the machine includes a recessed area 9 toreceive in flush relationship a hinged door I0 for providing access tothe machine. The front wall may also be formed with a loading ring 11'in the form of a flange projecting inwardly into basket 1 in concentricrelation with flange 5 of the basket.

Ina manner well' known in the art, basket I is supported for rotationabout a horizotanlaxis and is driven by a motor 12 supported on a basebracket 13 and'having an output drive pulley 14 attached to its shaft.Thr'ough an appropriate drive, for example by belt 15,. the basket isrotated to provide tumbling of the clothes placed therein'.

Motor 12 may also drive an air circulating means such as a fan 16,functioning to draw air in from the out-side, to force it over' a heater17', and through the foranlinous cylindrical wall of basket 1 in ordertoeva'por'ate' the moisture from clothes being tumbled within thebasket.

The warm moist air, after having passed through the;

basket and the clothes, is exhausted to the exterior of the machinethrough a lint trap struct'ufe indicated generally at 18 and including alint screen 19 forming a part of a hinged damper structure 20. I

It is to be understood in connection with the machine as thus fardescribed that clothes or articles in a dar'n p or wet state may beplaced within basket 1, and the machine is operated to tumble theclothes while forcing hot dry air into the basket to ext'ract themoisture from the clothes, with exhaust of the moist air to' the outsidethrough the lint trap structure is.

In accordance with this invention, means are provided for adding aconditioning liquid to the clothes following. a drying operation. Morespecifically, it is contein-' plated" that the arrangement in accordancewith this invention can be used to add water to the clothes preparatoryto ironing. Obviously, however, the invention would be equallyapplicable for adding a deodorant, perfume, sanitizer, or other clothesconditioning liquid to the clothes as a part of the over a'lllaunderingoperation;

While other devices may be employed for injecting a liquid into theinterior of basket 1, I have shown by way of example herein a liquidsprayer in the form of a glass jar 2 1 with a spray head 22 secured tothe top thereof, said spray head including a compressed air inlet 23 andspray nozzle 24. For convenience in use, jar 21" may have graduations tofacilitate determination-of the quantity of liquid required for a givenconditioningoperation. For example, the numbering of the graduations-maycor-' respond with the number of poundsof clothes-contained withinbasket 1. Thus, it four poundsof clothes are'to be conditioned,liquidwould beadded to jar 21 to the level of index 4. In theillustrated embodiment of my invention jar 21 is removably supported ondoor 10inany convenient manner,-as by'a shelf 25.- In'th'is embodimentthe'liquid' sp'rayeror atomizer must of course be positioned on the doorsothat whenthe" door is closed,

3 lnozzle 24 will direct the liquid spray directly into bas- To providemotive power for the sprayer, an air pump 26 carried on a supportingbase bracket 27 and driven by motor 12 may be employed. Since numerousair pumps of this type are available on the market, I have not shown thedetails of construction thereof, it being understood that rotation ofthe motor through the mechanism within the pump provides an air pressureat pump outlet 28, which is connected by means of a flexible hose 29 topressure .connection 23 of the sprayer. A flexible hose is especiallyconvenient for this purpose since it may be extended upwardly withincabinet side walls 6, through an aperture 30 in the vicinity of the doorhinges, with securement to the door by a bracket such as 31. Hence whenthe sprayer is not in use, the flexible hose may be disconnected fromthe pressure connection 23 and jar 21 may be removed entirely. The airpump may continue to run even though not connected to the sprayer sincethe small quantity of air delivered will have no adverse effect upon theoperation of the machine as a clothes dryer and the load imposed on themotor is inconsequential.

During injection of liquid into the basket, it is of course preferableto block the flow of air from the machine into the room. For thispurpose, the lint screen 19 and damper 20 are hinged as at 32 to thecabinet structure so that the operator may close damper 20 to block flowof air from the machine. Fan 16 may .continue to operate however toproduce a more thorough and uniform conditioning of the clothes beingtumbled within the basket.

Referring now to Fig. 2, I have indicated schematically a control systemfor such a machine. Electrical power is supplied for operation of themachine at a terminal block 33 including terminals for 220 volt incomingsupply lines 34 and 35 and a neutral line 36. link 37 may be employed inthe usual manner. The power supply lines 34 and 35 extend to a timercontrol assembly indicated generally at 38 and are connected thereto atterminals 39 and 40. The electrical circuit corresponding to inputterminal 39 extends to a cam operated closed position. Similarly, switch42 is operated by a cam 44. These cams may be rotated by a timer motor45, such as a synchronous clock motor, or may be manually rotated by acontrol knob 46. Timer 45 normally rotates the cams in a clockwisedirection. However by the use of slip clutches in a manner well known inthe art, knob 46 may be employed to manually rotate the cams in eitherdirection. Timer output terminals 47 and 48, upon closure of the timerswitches, are connected to the two sides of the power supply lines,while terminal 49 is an electrical neutral connection for timer motor45, whereby this motor may be operated on 110 volts. As clearly shown byFigs. 1 and 2, the electrical heater assembly 17 includes two separateheater sections 50 and 50a having a common terminal 51 and end terminals52 and 53, whereby the heater assembly may be operated with bothsections in electrical parallel, or by means of the manually operabletemperature selection switch 54, may be operated with only one sectionof the heater. The electrical heaters further may be under the controlof a cycling temperature control thermostat 55 and a safety thermostat56. The particular construction and arrangement of this temperaturecontrol forms no part of the present invention, but is disclosed andclaimed in the copending application of Leonard O. Mayhan, S. N.398,039, filed December 14, 1953, now Patent Number 2,789,367, andassigned to the General Electric Company, assignee of this. application.

Motor 12 includes the usual main or run winding 57 and a start winding58. By means of motor terminals 59 and 60, the main winding is connectedbetween one A fusible 4 5 side of the electrical power line and theelectrical neutral. The motor therefore is operated on 110 volts. Motorstart winding 58 is connected to the power supply line through a switchincluding contacts 61 and 62 adapted to be bridged by an armature 63 ofa centrifugal mechanism 64. When the motor is at rest, armature 63completes the circuit to the start winding from motor terminal 59 tomotor terminal 60. However as soon as the motor comes up to speed,centrifugal mechanism 64 lifts armature 63 to open the start Windingcircuit. As clearly shown by Fig. 2, this same centrifugal mechanism 64and armature 63 completes the circuit when the motor is running throughcontacts 65 and 66 in the heater circuit.

For safety reasons, it is preferred to have the entire machine under thecontrol of a door operated switch 67 which is in its closed positionwhen the door is closed permitting operation of the dryer, and is openedwhen the door is opened to shut down both motor 12 and heater 17. Thedryer control dial or knob indicated more clearly by Fig. 3 includes adry arc 68 calibrated for example in the number of minutes of operationdesired. The opposite side of the dial includes a sprinkle arc 69 whichsimilarly might be calibrated in the number of minutes of operationdesired for a clothes dampening or condition operation. The dial furthermay include two otf positions 70 and 71 which can be aligned with theindex marker 72 to terminate machine operation. Assuming that themachine is to be operated as a clothes dryer, the operator selects thedesired operating temperature by switch 54, for example warm or hot, andthen rotates control knob 46 in a clockwise direction selecting theperiod of time desired for the drying operation. As can be seen clearlyfrom Fig. 2, rotation of earns 43 and 44 with the control knob in aclockwise direction is effective to close both switches 41 and 42. Acircuit is now completed from line 34 through switch 41 to line 73connected directly to motor terminal 59. Power is thus supplied to mainwinding 57 of the motor and to start winding 58 through thecentrifugally operated switch contacts 61 and 62 and the circuit iscompleted through line 74 from motor terminal 60 to the door operatedswitch 67, line 75, to the electrical neutral 36. As soon as the motorcomes up to speed, the circuit to start winding 58 is opened by thecentrifugal mechanism as previously described. This same motion of thecentrifugal mechanism is effective to bridge contacts 65 and 66 byarmature 63. The circuit for the heating elements is therefore completedfrom line 34 through switch 41 to line 73, motor terminal 59, contacts66, armature 63, contact 65, a motor terminal 76, line 77, to the commonterminal 51 of the heating element. Assuming that the temperatureselector switch has been set to the hot position, parallel circuits arecompleted through both sections 50 and 50a of the electric heatingelement, through a line 78 to safety thermostat 56, line 79 to thecycling temperature control termostat 55, line 80 to terminal 48 of thetimer, cam operated switch 42, to terminal 40 corresponding to the otherside of the electrical supply line 35. It may be noted in thisconnection that motor 12 must be running before power is supplied to theelectrical heaters. It may also be noted that the door operated switch67 is in both the motor circuit and in the circuit of timer motor 45.Therefore, if at any time during operation of the machine the door isopened, both motors are immediately stopped, and in view of the factthat the heaters are under control of a centrifugal switch in motor 12,the heaters likewise are deenergized.

Operation of both motor 12 and heaters 17 continues until such time ascam 44 rotates to a position opening switch 42, opening the circuit tothe heating elements. Switch 41 however remains closed for a shortperiod of time following the opening of switch 42 to continue thedriving motor in operation for a period of time commonly referred to asthe cool-down. After approximately five minutes of cool-down, the valleyin cam 43 opens switch 41 to terminate dryer operation.

If on the other hand theoperator desires .to operate the machine fordampening or conditioning the clothes, or for flufiing the clothes byoperation of the machine to .tumble Without heater operation, controlknob 46 is rotated in the counterclockwise direction to align thesprinkle arc with the indicator. As clearly shown by Fig. 2, thisoperation closes switch 41 but does not close switch 42. Hence, motor 12is operative to tumble the clothes and to operate the fan to force airthrough the clothes, while the heater remains inoperative. In accordancewith this invention it is contemplated that during operation of themachine in this manner the water sprayer 21 may be placed in use byplacing the container on shelf 25 and connecting the air supply hose 29to pressure connection 23. The quantity of water to be injected into thebasket may be readily determined by measurement of the quantity ofliquid placed within container 21. However, the time of operation isalso readily under the control of the operator by the proper positioningof control dial 46 with respect to indicator 72, to time theconditioning operation.

In operation, it is found that more uniform results can be obtained byconditioning clothes in the manner heretofore disclosed than is possiblewith hand sprinkling of the clothes. Furthermore, an entire loadconsisting, for example, of seven or eight pounds of dry clothes can beconditioned and made ready for ironing in a few minutes, whereas asimilar operation by hand would take much longer. This invention alsolends itself for convenient application of other liquid conditioningagents for fab rics such as moth-proofing compounds, deodorizingcompounds, and the like. a

While a specific embodiment of the invention has been disclosed herein,it is obvious that many other modifications may be made by those skilledin the :art without actually departing from the invention. For example,other types of liquid injection means may be employed other than thecompressed .air operated sprayer illustrated herein. Similarly, othertypes of drive mechanisms for the tumbling basket may be employed, andmore elaborate controls may be employed, for example, to actuate the fanonly during a drying cycle and to operate the air pump 26 only during aconditioning cycle. It is therefore aimed in the appended claims tocover all such equivalent variations as come within the true spirit andscope of the invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the UnitedStates is:

1. A clothes dryer comprising a rotatable basket, means for rotatingsaid basket at a tumbling speed, beating means associated with saidbasket, means for forcing air over said heater and through said basket,an exhaust air passage including a lint trap therein, a damper asso-.ciated with said lint trap movable to a closed position to block flowof air through said exhaust passage, means spraying atomized liquid intothe interior of said basket, and a manually operable control member forselecting operation of the dryer without operation of said heating meanswhile spraying liquid into said basket.

2. A clothes dryer comprising a rotatable basket, a heater associatedwith said basket, air circulation means for forcing air over said heaterand into said basket, drive means for operating said air circulationmeans and rotating said basket, a manually adjustable control forselectively operating both said drive means and said heater and foroperating said drive means without said heater, a liquid sprayerpositioned to inject atomized liquid into said basket, a lint trapproviding egress for moisture and lint laden air during drying, a damperfor blocking air flow through said lint trap during water injection, andmeans for operating said sprayer to inject atomized'liquid into saidbasket.

3. Clothes conditioning apparatus comprising, a tumbling basket,electrical heating means for evaporating moisture from laundry tumblingwithin said basket, an air moving device for forcing air flow over saidheating means and through said basket, a liquid spraying devicedirecting liquid particles into said basket, pump means for operatingsaid spraying device, common drive means rotating said basket andoperating said air moving device and pump means to dampen laundrytumbling within said basket, and control means for selectivelyenergizing said drive means with said heating means for drying laundryand without said heating means and with operation of said sprayingdevice for dampening laundry.

4. In a clothes dryer or the like, a basket in which clothes may betumbled, drive means for rotating said basket at tumbling speed,electrical heating means positioned .adjacent said basket for supplyingheat to the laundry tumbling therein to evaporate moisture therefrom,liquid injection means associated in operative relationship with saidbasket to dampen the laundry tumbling therein, means operated by saiddrive means to discharge liquid through said liquid injection means intosaid basket in finely divided particles, and control means forselectively energizing said drive means with said heating means fordrying the laundry in said basket and with operation of said liquidinjection means and without said heating means for dampening the laundrywithin said basket.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,025,263 Giesler May 7, 1912 2,079,280 Couch May 4, 1937 2,166,294Hetzer July 18, 1939 2,357,909 Ridge Sept. 12, 1944 2,434,476 Wales Jan.13, 1948 2,553,581 Hafiield May 22, 1951 2,555,268 Chamberlin May 29,1951 2,607,209 I Constantine Aug. 19, 1952 2,654,961 Manecke Oct. 13,1953

